Sugar-granulator



(No Model.)

B. W. COOK. & W; W. REID.

SUGAR GRANULATOR.

No. 552,422. Patented Dec. 31, 18 95;

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UNITED ST=ATEs- PATENT OFFIeE.

.BENJAMIN w. cook, on NEW ORLEANS, AND WILLIAM w. REID, or PORT ALLEN, LOUISIANA.

SUGAR-GRANULATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,422, dated December 31, 1895.

Application filed August 22, 1895.

To all whom it WW concern.-

ie it known that we, BENJAMIN \V. COOK, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans, and WILLIAM W. REID, residing at Port Allen, in the parish of West Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sugar-Granulators; and we do hereby declare that the followin is a full clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the figures ofreference marked thereon.

, This invention relates to apparatus for granulating sugar, and is in the nature of an improvement on the machine for which Letters Patent of the United States were granted to us on the 11th day of J une, 1895,

-o No. 5%,010.

Our present invention has for its object to provide improved means for breaking up the lumps and large crystals and reducing the sugar to a uniform and desired grain before it is subjected to the action of the granulator, and also has for a further object to provide an abundant supply of hot air to the granulator to effect a very rapid and therough drying of the sugar during the operation of granulating the same.

To'these ends our invention consists in the novel features and in the combination or arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims following the description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, wherein Figure 1 is a Vertical central section of our improved granulating apparatus; and Fig. 2 40 is a horizontal section of the same, taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 indicates a cylindrical upright casing having a closed lower end, which is mounted on a rigid base 2. Concentrically throughout said casing extends a shaft 3, stepped at its lower end in a bearing 4 formed on the bot tom of the base 2, and at its upper end in a spider-bearing 5 secured in the upper open end of the casing. The shaft 3 is adapted to revolve in its bearings and is driven by a Serial No. 560,097. (No model.)

pulley 6, which may be belted to any suitable source of power.

Upon the interior of the casing l, at suitable and uniform intervals, are arranged hopper-shaped sections 7, rigidly secured at their upper edges to the inner walls of the casing, and from this point of attachment each section extends downward and inward, terminating in a lower contracted and open end. In other words, each section is a frustum of an inverted hollow cone, the truncated end of each being in approximately the same plane wit-lithe attached edge of the section next below. Upon the tubular shaft are rigidly mounted a series of horizontal disks 8, arrangedat points between the upper and lower open ends of the sections 7, and having a diameter somewhat greater than the contracted ends of said sections. A sufficient annular space is provided between the edge of each disk and the inner face of each hopper-shaped section 7 forthe passage of the granulated sugar.

In the lower end of the cylindrical casing 1 is arranged an inclined chute 9, which extends outside the casing and has an open end 10. I

As described above, the apparatus is similar to that shown and described in our said Letters Patent No. 541,010, dated June 11, 1895. Vhen constructed in accordance with our present invention, the uppermost hoppershaped section 7 is provided at its lower contracted end with a reticulated or foraminous bottom 11, and secured to the shaft 3 so as to rotate therewith and sweep over said reticulated bottom is a brush 12 provided with stiff steel. bristles. The brush is secured to said shaft by a sleeve 13 and set-screw 14, by which means it maybe adjusted "ertically upon the shaft, and is made of such. a size that it will sweep over every portion of the reticulated bottom 11 as it is rotated with the shaft. v 95 Communicating with the interior of the cylindrical casing at points one above the other are two hot-air pipes 15 and 16, which may be connected to any suitable type of airforcing apparatus for supplying heated air under pressure to the interior of the casing.

The operation of our improved apparatus is as .i'ollows: The sugar as it comes from the sugar-making mechanism is fed into the upper hopper-shaped section 7, over the reticulated bottom ill oi? which it is constantly swept by the steel brush ]2, which forces it through said reticulated bottom, breaking up the lumps and large crystals and red ucing them toa uniform and suitable grain. The

sugar from thence :t'alls onto the uppermost of the disks 3, and. said disks being revolved rapidly by the shaft 23 the sugar is immediately thrown outward again st the inner face of the correspomling hop ier-shapcd section 7. Sliding down the wall of this section it is poured upon the next disk below, and the operation is repeated. During this operation hea ed air is delivered to the cylindricalcasing through the pipes 15 and 1(3 and is forced to pass upward and escape through the open top of the casing. The sugar moving in the opposite di reetion is caused. to travel the greatest possible distance in order to reach the lower end of the casing, and is, moreover, kept in constant agitation, so that the hot air can reach every granule and no lumps or adhesions can be formed. Atterpassingth rough the last section 7 it falls upon the inclined chute U and is discharged from the casing thoroughly dried and granulated.

The horizontally arranged t'm'anlinous or reticulated bottom '1 i. of the uppermost hopper-shaped section 7, and the brush 12,secured to the vertical shaft and traveling horizontally over the Joraminous or reticulatcdbottom, are advantageous over the rollers disclosed in our patent hereinbe'lfore referred to in that the lumps and large crystals of sugar are broken up andforced through the formainous or reticulated bottom in grains of substantially uniform size without danger of breaking these grains;whereas the crushing rollers referred to break up the grains and produce a product inferior to the product prod need by our present apparatus.

Having described our invention, what we claim is- In a sugar-gran ulat-in g apparatus, the combination of a cylindrical casing having a series of interior rigidly attached, hopper-shaped sections open at both ends and arranged one above the other, a reticulated bottom arranged in the uppermost of said sections, a shaft. passing concentrically through said casing and through the openings in said sections, said shaft being provided with a series ot' disks arranged to revolve within but out 0t contact with the remaining hopper-sha-pml sections, a brush fixed to said shaft and moving horizontally over said reticulated l.)ottom, and means for supplying heated air to said casing, substantially as described.

In testimony whereot' we have hereunto sl'ibseribed our names in the l'n-esenee of two witnesses.

BENJAMIN \V. 0001K. 'WITJLIAM W. .REII).

Witnesses:

.I'. l Dav, K. (JoLLiNs.

It is hereby certified that the residences of the patentees in Letters Patent No. 552,422 granted December 31, 1895, upon the application of Benjamin W. Cook and William W. Reid, for an improvement in Sugar-Granulators, were erroneously written and printed Benjamin W. Cook, of New Orleans, and William W. Reid, of

Port Allen, Louisiana, whereas said residences should have been written and printed Benjamin W. 00010, of Port Allen, and William W. Reid, of New Orleans, Louisiana; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Ofiice.

Signed, countersigned, and sealed this 14th day of January, A. D., 1896.

[sEAL.] J N O. M. REYNOLDS,

Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Oountersigned J OHN S. SEYMOUR,

Commissioner of Patents; 

